758 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



do not esteem it at all. As the Alausa finta, consequently, does not come 

 within the scope of my observations, 1 1 have confined myself to the 

 examination of the food of Alausa vulgaris. 



In the above-mentioned authors, I find no statement regarding the 

 food of Alausa vulgaris. Only Giinther (who, however, had not been 

 able to examine any of those which occur in the Neckar, p. 121) says, 

 {p. 124:) "The food of the 'Maifisch' consists chiefly of worms and in- 

 sects. It is said, however, that it can also be caught with boiled pease." 

 It will be seen from the following in how far he is right. 



The first two stomachs of Alausa vulgaris I received on the 3d May; 

 later I gradually got eighteen more, so that the total number of speci- 

 mens which I examined was twenty. The result was, on the whole, the 

 same in all. In most of them, I found that the stomach had some con- 

 tents; only in a few I found little or nothing. The examination of the 

 contents showed the following : Inside the stomach proper, which was 

 strongly contracted, there was a cylindrical mass, pointed at the lower 

 end, toward the pylorus; it seemed to consist of a stringy, white mu- 

 cus, and showed the impression of the folds of the stomach. By a longi- 

 tudinal section, the inside was laid open, and it became evident that the 

 mucus only formed an outer covering, enveloping a reddish or gray 

 grained substance. The microscopic examination of this substance 

 showed a large number of remnants of diminutive animal organs and 

 well-developed cell-like formations. As regards the former, I recognized 

 tarsi, antennae, &c, of microscopic entomostracans and other crustace- 

 ans. Occasionally, I found larger connected parts of these diminutive 

 animals. It is possible that these tarsi, &c, belonged to insects; but I 

 have never been able to find wings or parts of the skeleton, &c., of an 

 insect. I must also state that I have not found remains of fish in any 

 of the specimens which I examined. 



Among the cell-like formations which I found in the stomach of 

 Alausa vulgaris, there were (as shown by a microscopic examination) 

 two varieties, a ball-shaped one and a tube-shaped one. In the ball- 

 shaped ones, I recognized animal eggs (probably of Ascaris adunca, 

 . which is found in large quantities in the stomach of the " Maifisch"); 

 the tube shaped ones seemed to be encysted embryos of nematoids. 

 But as I could not bring my investigations of this point to a final con- 

 clusion, and as its further discussion goes beyond the aim of this trea- 

 tise, I confine myself to what has been said above. 



conclusion. 



Nothing remains but to give a brief resume of these investigations 

 and their results, so as to definitely answer the question whether or not 

 the catching of "Eiimpchen" is injurious to other fishes. 



1 In examining the question as to whether the catching of the " Riimpcheu " is injuri- 

 ous to other fish, only such fish can he spoken of which exceed the "Riimpchcn" in 

 quality; for one certainly -would not think of sparing the " Eiimpchen," e. g., for the 

 pike. 



